You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Long love affairs accumulate memories. Mine<br />
with cars has lasted now for about 60 years and<br />
a million miles. Small wonder then, that when I<br />
peer back along that road of memory, some short<br />
sections shine in my mind’s eye.<br />
My Memorable Rides<br />
Ninth in a series by Stan Belland<br />
August, 1985 Monte Carlo, Monaco<br />
It had been an ambition of mine to drive the Monaco Grand Prix route ever since<br />
I had seen the 1966 Frankenheimer film, “Grand Prix”, a film short on plot but<br />
very long on race driving special effects. In fact, it had won an Oscar for the<br />
racing sequences. For years I had carried around vivid recollections of the sequence<br />
in which James Garner comes out of the famous tunnel and hurtles his formula 1 car<br />
over the wall and into the blue Mediterranean.<br />
I had business in Europe and Esther and I decided<br />
to rent a car after my meetings and do some touring.<br />
During preparations for the trip, I mentioned to my<br />
client that we planned to drive the French Riviera<br />
and he sent me a special invitation from “Societé<br />
des Bains de Mer de Monaco”, better known as the<br />
Monte Carlo Casino. This was an admission to the<br />
upstairs casino, which at that time was restricted to<br />
members and invited guest and required black tie.<br />
Taking advantage of the opportunity required packing<br />
my tux but it seemed too good an experience to miss.<br />
We rented a car in Paris and headed east to Aix en<br />
Provence where the clientʼs office was located and<br />
then headed toward the Riviera. Notwithstanding the glamour of the trip, the car<br />
we rented was a Ford Escort, a tinny, underpowered little car, but adequate for our<br />
purposes.<br />
As we wandered east toward Monaco, Esther was excited about a night at the<br />
Casino, but my thoughts were on the chance to drive the famous, 2.8 mile grand prix<br />
course. Monte Carlo is a beautiful little city in a country of less than three-quarters<br />
of a square mile, overflowing with money and all its trappings. The Hotel de Paris is<br />
elegant and outrageously over priced and we were well out of our depth but enjoying<br />
every minute of it. The valet took our little car with frosty courtesy and slightly<br />
flared nostrils.<br />
The night at the casino is still a memory<br />
we savor. We were all dressed up with<br />
someplace to go and we made the most<br />
of it, trying hard to act as if we belonged<br />
there. The upstairs gaming room is<br />
a little hard to describe. Red plush,<br />
tapestries, statuary, stained glass, ankle<br />
deep carpeting and an elegant hush over<br />
everything as the beautiful people who<br />
really did belong there stood and sat around tables, playing games we couldnʼt<br />
understand and didnʼt dare try. At the end of the evening we played the slots<br />
we found in one of the downstairs rooms and did pretty well, although it had no<br />
relationship to the slots in Vegas.<br />
The next morning at breakfast, I reviewed<br />
the map I had brought of the race route and<br />
believed I had it pretty well memorized. Itʼs<br />
a very twisty circuit through narrow city<br />
streets with a lot of tough grade changes and<br />
I was hyped and feeling like Alberto Ascari<br />
(who went over the ocean wall in the 1955<br />
Monaco Grand Prix).<br />
We putted out in our little Escort and, with<br />
Esther as my navigator, found the starting<br />
point, and we were off. Sometimes anticipation and imagination can make the most<br />
pedestrian event seem to be something else entirely. I drove the circuit with all the<br />
flair I could muster at top speeds approaching 40 miles an hour but with visions of<br />
racing glory flashing through my head. Thereʼs a long and dark tunnel toward the<br />
end of the circuit where you suddenly break out of the darkness onto a long straight<br />
with the sun blinding you and the bright Mediterranean on your left, guarded only by<br />
a low stone wall. At that point I was Pete Aron (played by James Garner, played by<br />
me) and the shrill, beautiful sounds of formula 1 cars were in my ears.<br />
I know it all sounds very Walter Mitty, but it happened to me and it was delightful.<br />
Some day, if they are interested, Iʼll tell my grandkids about how grandpa drove the<br />
Monaco Grand Prix – and I may leave out that I drove it in a Ford Escort.<br />
52nd Annual <strong>TC</strong>MG/ARR Conclave<br />
October 3-5<br />
25 rooms reserved at the Yosemite<br />
Gateway Inn, in Oakhurst, for the<br />
first weekend in October.<br />
Friday, Oct 3 and Saturday the 4th.<br />
The price is $107 plus tax.<br />
Call 1-888-256-8042.<br />
The rooms are under “MG Group”. We<br />
will have the Saturday dinner in the<br />
banquet room at their restaurant.
Change language